My Colonizer Ancestors
I’ve been deep into ancestry research for the past few months (this past November I signed up for a free two week trial of a few sites, and then furiously did as much research and downloading of info as I could before I cancelled the subscriptions so I didn’t have to pay) and have been continuing my research independently since then. I also recognize the privilege I have in being able to access this information due to my Northern European heritage.
I really loved the “fan chart” data visualization from My Heritage (shown below are the original versions of their chart), so I re-created my own version of it for my family tree with a focus on following each line back to the person who originally immigrated to Turtle Island (what we now call the United States of America).
It was interesting to discover that my paternal ancestors all emigrated from Europe fairly recently (my first and second great grandparents, respectively), while ancestors on my maternal side emigrated from England as far back as my 11th great grandparents, who basically founded towns in the original colonies (more about THAT story further on in this post).
I also found a great story of a secret love affair between an Irish lord’s daughter and a Scottish weaver-turned-chauffeur - my 6th Great Grandfather, William Wishard(t), who was born in Scotland and emigrated to Pennsylvania around 1774. The story I found (via another user on Ancestry.com) reads like an actual movie script, or perhaps even the basis of a plot line from Downton Abbey?
“The grandchildren of Samuel Morgan Brown have as great-great-great grandparents, Lord Lytle and his wife Lady Jane Stuart of Ireland. They lived in the northern portion of Ireland, in the county of Tyrven, a Protestant part of Ireland. Their daughter, Susanah Lytle, married the Lytle coachman, William Wishard.
William Wishard was born between 1720 and 1725 in Scotland, a weaver by trade. He was driven from his home by religious persecution and fled to Ireland, hiring out as coachman to Lord Lytle. Lord Lytle was opposed to the marriage of his daughter to Wishard, but the marriage was nevertheless secretly performed. The couple were pursued by Susanah’s brothers who were bent on taking the life of Wishard and recovering their sister. Wishard escaped, but Susanah was secured and brought back home. She was watched very closely for some time, and during this period, her first child, William, was born.
Wishard was thought to have boarded a ship to America and two years later, the Lytle family heard that the vessel Wishard had taken was wrecked. It happened, however, that he has taken another vessel, and about the time the Lytles heard of the shipwreck, Wishard returned in disguise to the Lytle estate. Here, one of the tenant families recognized and befriended him.
Susanah’s health becoming somewhat impaired by close confinement, her family was obliged to allow her some liberty in the open air. On one of these occasions while out walking for her health, Wishard secretly met her and arrangements were made to escape. A vessel was found which was going directly to America. When the time arrived for the departure of the vessel, Susannah and her child went out for a walk, and fled with Wishard on the ship to America.
The Wishards settled near Philadelphia on what was then called “The waters of the Brandywine”. While living in this home, their second child, Samuel, was born on December 18th, 1775. Samuel was the grandfather of Samuel Morgan Brown.
Wishard enlisted in the army of the Revolution and was made a Sergeant. There is an account of his honorable discharge at the close of the war, which would indicate he served all through the war.”
I also had fun creating a ‘migration map’ which includes the date each of my ancestors left their homeland and travelled across the Atlantic to what we now call America. And the dates on the left side indicate the years they migrated to a new location, eventually landing in California (where I was born).
Another amazing discovery were the names of my 9th Great Grandparents, Zerubbabel Fyler and Experience Strong, both born in Connecticut in the mid-1600’s. Experience was the daughter of Abigail Ford, who immigrated to Massachusetts from England in 1630 at age 11 with her father Thomas Ford. He was carefully chosen to be part of the journey as one of “several men past middle life with adult families and good estates” by Rev. John White, often called the “Founder of Massachusetts.”
They arrived only 10 years after the Mayflower’s arrival in 1620 on a ship called the Mary & John. Thomas Ford, my 11th great-grandfather, helped to found one of the first towns in New England: Dorchester (now Boston), Massachusetts - the land of the Massachusett and Pawtucket people, and five years later also founded Windsor, Connecticut, the land of the Tunxis, Podunks, Wangunks, and Poquonock tribal nations. The word “Connecticut” is a French corruption of the Mohegan-Pequot word quinnehtukqut, which means “long tidal river.”
The founding of Windsor immediately followed a smallpox outbreak among the indigenous people in the area in 1633-34 which caused the colonizers to believe the land was unclaimed or unused and “entirely void of inhabitants.” Thomas Ford ‘owned’ a lot of land throughout his time in Connecticut, and was also very involved in civic affairs.
Most of my research has led me to understand that many of my ancestors were colonizers. They were, directly or indirectly, responsible for the genocide of thousands of indigenous people. They believed the land they immigrated to was theirs for the taking by divine right. They most likely participated in many of the original colonial ‘Thanksgivings’ - celebratory feasts held after the successful massacre of indigenous people.*
This timeline depicts the immigration of my 11th Great Grandparents from England to Massachusetts (and ultimately Connecticut) in the 1630’s, as well as the timeline of the Pequot War and genocide of the Pequot tribe.
It has been both thrilling and difficult to learn the actual history of my ancestral lineage. On the one hand, discovering that I have a deeply ancestral connection to the craft of weaving has inspired me to follow my curiosity with learning that art form. And knowing where my ancestors come from has helped to guide my own spiritual practices in a way that deepens my connections to those cultures. I’ve started taking an Irish language class, and I have been researching Druidry and the magical connections the Celtic pagans had with their native trees.
On the other hand, I have to also hold the tension of the narrative of colonization that runs through my ancestral line. I am a 10th-generation colonizer descendant whose english ancestors arrived on Turtle Island in the early 1600’s and consciously or unconsciously destroyed the indigenous populations for their own survival. And their ancestors had been systemically and violently separated from their own indigenous spiritualities in the Atlantic Archipelago both by the physical cutting-down of sacred trees, and the forced assimilation to the christian doctrine of colonization.
I am the first person that I know of in my ancestral line to begin working through these long-term lineages of trauma and oppression, and I may not be able to heal them and pay reparations for them in my lifetime, but I believe that part of my purpose is to begin to heal the wounds both inflicted on and by my ancestors. I believe these deep wounds of colonization are directly linked to the violent extraction and degradation of the earth, and that addressing these systems of white supremacy can heal our relationships to the earth.
A print of my family tree hangs on the wall above a print I made of my husband’s family tree.
*In a quote from Susan Bates: “The killings became more and more frenzied, with days of thanksgiving feasts being held after each successful massacre. George Washington finally suggested that only one day of Thanksgiving per year be set aside instead of celebrating each and every massacre. Later Abraham Lincoln decreed Thanksgiving Day to be a legal national holiday during the Civil War — on the same day he ordered troops to march against the starving Sioux in Minnesota.”